Passes the Bechdel test
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
1998. Directed by Steve Miner, written by Debra Hill and John Carpenter and Robert Zappia.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
8 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 86. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Twenty years after Michael Myers' massacre in Haddonfield, Laurie Strode faked her own death, traveled to California, and took on the identity Keri Tate. Michael discovers Laurie's new identity and travels to California to kill his sister. Laurie must now take on her brother with her son's life at stake.
- Released
- 05 Aug 1998
- Genres
- Horror, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 52 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 12 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Keri 107 lines, woman
- John 49 lines, man
- Molly 45 lines, woman
- Carter 44 lines, man
- Linda 37 lines, woman
- Will 31 lines, man
- Blake 27 lines
- Pamela 16 lines, woman
- Amy 14 lines, woman
- Jimmy 13 lines, man
Full cast, 22 people
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode / Keri Tate
- Josh Hartnett as John
- Adam Arkin as Will Brennan
- Michelle Williams as Molly
- Adam Hann-Byrd as Charlie
- Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Sarah
- Janet Leigh as Norma
- LL Cool J as Ronny
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jimmy
- Branden Williams as Tony
- Nancy Stephens as Marion
- Beau Billingslea as Fitz
- Matt Winston as Matt
- Larisa Miller as Claudia
- Emmalee Thompson as Casey
- David Blanchard as Waiter
- Chris Durand as Michael Myers
- John Cassini as Cop #1
- Jody Wood as Cop #2
- LisaGay Hamilton as Shirl (voice)
- Tom Kane as Voice Over (Voice)
- Steve Miner as School Financial Advisor (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 86
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 5 | 7 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 to 8 | 6 | 4 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 4 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 23 | 15 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 14 |
| 19 to 20 | 35 | 19 |
| 21 to 22 | 1 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 6 | 11 |
| 25 to 26 | 2 | 2 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 4 |
| 29 to 30 | 3 | 8 |
| 31 to 32 | 5 | 5 |
| 33 to 34 | 2 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 2 | 3 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 to 40 | 9 | 7 |
| 41 to 42 | 3 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 1 | 0 |
| 45 to 46 | 10 | 8 |
| 47 to 48 | 6 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 15 | 0 |
| 51 to 52 | 12 | 10 |
| 53 to 54 | 14 | 2 |
| 55 to 56 | 15 | 21 |
| 57 to 58 | 18 | 2 |
| 59 to 60 | 6 | 0 |
| 61 to 62 | 1 | 0 |
| 63 to 64 | 5 | 3 |
| 65 to 66 | 2 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 1 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 1 | 0 |
| 71 to 72 | 1 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 9 | 7 |
| 75 to 76 | 3 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 2 | 0 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 5 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 1 |
| 85 to 86 | 6 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
KERI: Good morning, Hattie. HATTIE: Went into town. Had that duplicate key made. KERI: Thank you. HATTIE: Thank me with two bucks.
AMY: I just got here. MOLLY: What's this? LINDA: You say, "The key to my heart," and I'm gonna hurl.
AMY: Party at Freeman's tonight. LINDA: I am in need of some serious partying. MOLLY: Not me.
MOLLY: I can't afford to get caught. LINDA: Molly, you're the resident assistant. What are you gonna do, narc on yourself?
MOLLY: Yeah. KERI: All right... fun's over.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 59 are women's.
236 lines from women, 164 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
8 women and 14 men in the cast. 3 women and 3 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 451.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 32 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 57% of the words (1,595), men 43% (1,204). Women have 59% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
14
Two men
5
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 36% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Steve Miner (man)
- Written by
- Robert Zappia (man), Matt Greenberg (man)
- Story by
- Robert Zappia (man)
- Produced by
- Paul Freeman (man)
- Shot by
- Daryn Okada (man)
- Edited by
- Patrick Lussier (man)
- Music by
- John Ottman (man)
- Production design by
- John Willett (man)
- Costumes by
- Deborah Everton (woman)
- Cast by
- Ross Brown (gender not listed), Christine Sheaks (woman), Mary West (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
8 women, 15 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
3 women, 8 men, 5 not listed
-
Other crew
6 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 0 men, 8 not listed
-
Art
4 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 4 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 37 on average. Men: 25 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Michelle Williams 17, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe 19, Jamie Lee Curtis 39, Janet Leigh 71
Men
Adam Hann-Byrd 16, Joseph Gordon-Levitt 17, Josh Hartnett 20, Branden Williams 23, LL Cool J 30, Adam Arkin 41
Exhibit H: the money
It made 4.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $17 million
- Box office
- $75 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 86 scenes and 451 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
